Conveyor belts are used to move or convey bulk particulate materials. A conveyor belt consists of a face side and a back side. The face side receives the load of product at a load point and carries the product in the conveying direction to a discharge point where the product is then unloaded. A product residue may adhere to the belt, build up over the span of the conveyor belt face, and release onto return rolls and may then drop to the ground and/or body of water. The back side of the conveyor belt is not designed to carry product. The conveyor belt rides on rollers or a deck attached to a conveyor system structure that is ridged, with a starting point (usually a tail pulley) and an ending point (a head pulley). The conveyor belt may have a mechanical joint or a non-profiled seam, to create an endless belt with no start or end. The conveyor belt runs uniformly around the tail pulley and the head pulley, supported between the two pulleys by a deck or rollers on the top face and carrying rolls on the bottom return. With the transfer of product residue to the conveyor structure, a residue build-up can occur causing belt shifting, and resulting in damage to the belt, structure, and/or rollers.
To address the foregoing problem, scrapers or cleaners are provided to scrape and clean the belt immediately following the discharge point on the head pulley. This has been addressed previously by providing a spring-mounted blade in contact with the belt. A challenge that such current cleaners face is the ability to clean the surface of a belt that contains irregularities or reverses direction. Conveyor belts may have uneven surface wear, mechanical joints or have had cuts patched with rip plates, and there may be abnormalities on the head pulley. Current scrapers and cleaners do not have the ability to handle such irregularities. U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,520 to Rhodes discloses a conveyor belt cleaning device in which the pressure on the scraper blade is applied by a pressurized bag, however the scraper blade can only slide in one direction in the housing and is not free to move in the direction tangential to the surface of the conveyor belt. There is a need therefore for a belt cleaner that can divert product residue off the face of a belt at the offloading point, even if the surface of the head pulley contains ridges and irregularities, or where the belt surface has irregularities such as laced joints, rip plates, and patch repairs, or where the belt reverses direction.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.